


Pale Moon/Red Moon

by doublejoint



Category: One Piece
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29153616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: “Really,” Nami has said, multiple times, “It’s only an eclipse.”
Relationships: Nami/Nefertari Vivi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Pale Moon/Red Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by [Complainte de La Butte](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5plwp0gzPRI).

The moon might be brighter reflected on the water, stretched into a different shape, than it is in the sky. Perhaps it’s just the movement of the sea, forcing the angle to change and hit Vivi’s eyes a dozen different ways in the same second, while the moon in the sky simply hangs there, far away. This low over the ocean, it’s larger than she’s used to seeing--mostly from the same set of windows at home, but more recently from islands up and down the Grand Line. At this point, too many of them have run together in her mind, and if she separates it out she’ll have to separate the things she’s done as a Baroque Works agent out, crystallize them in her mind and hold them heavy in her hand.

She ought to; it’s her responsibility, regardless of her purpose. The shoulders of royalty are made to carry heavy things. She swallows, and then turns her head, not nearly as sharply as she wants to, when the floorboards of the deck creak. Nami is carrying two mugs, and hands one to Vivi; it’s hot enough to make her realize her hands are cold, her nail beds turning pale blue and her knuckles stiff and slow. 

“Oh! Thank you.”

“That’ll be a billion beri.”

She’s joking, but only by half; Vivi knows her well enough by now to say that. And despite knowing that Nami won’t charge her, despite knowing she could have gotten it herself if she’d realized she was cold or thirsty, she really is grateful. It’s a different feeling than people giving her things because they feel they ought to, attempting to anticipate her needs or interpret her words as a request, the things for which she never feels grateful enough, the things with which she can’t find a way to take issue verbally but always, still, make her feel a little awkward. 

She takes a tentative sip at the mug. It’s hot water, nearly burning her tongue, but the warmth is much needed. 

Nami sits down and then scoots a bit closer, her hand a centimeter or so from Vivi’s thigh. She uncurls her fingers, still hot from carrying Vivi’s mug when they touch her skin.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” says Nami.

“Yeah,” says Vivi. 

Nami moves her hand up to rest on the top of Vivi’s thigh, and Vivi covers it with her own. Nami’s fingers flex in response.

“Cold.”

“Sorry.”

Vivi’s been at sea for long enough that she’s stopped noticing the motion of the boat, but if she focuses on it, she can feel it under her. The  _ Merry _ may sail especially smoothly, but a boat is a boat and the waves are the waves. The feeling’s not bad, per se, just different, from the solid floor of a building and from the sweeping sands of the open desert. Nami’s someone who wants to spend her whole life at sea, though, isn’t she? To map the whole ocean until nothing’s left, see everything there is?

“What are you going to do after you map everything out?”

Nami smiles. “No one’s ever asked me that.”

“Have you asked yourself?”

“Nope. I’ll figure it out when I get there.”

Vivi leans in, bumping her shoulder against Nami’s. She’s about to straighten back up, but Nami darts in and kisses her mouth, just long enough for Vivi to realize the warmth of it.

* * *

“This is the best place.”

Nami is definitive, and Vivi trusts her. The moon has nearly cleared the most distant dunes on the horizon, cream-colored against the blue of the sky dotted with nearly as many stars as the open ocean would be. Is, somewhere far out at sea. Soon, it will be covered in red shadow, the blood moon, bringer of superstition among even Vivi’s most practical acquaintances.

(“Really,” Nami has said, multiple times, “It’s only an eclipse.”)

But only an eclipse, a scientific phenomenon, easily explainable, is still something. One edge of the mood begins to turn the color of blood, spreading like a wound, like a wave on the moon’s surface. Nami’s hair looks redder in this light, cascading halfway down her back, not the longest Vivi’s ever seen her with, but still longer than she’s used to. It’s not a bad look on her, though very little could be. And Vivi knows her, every inch of her, sunburn-prone skin but her midriff bared just the same, feet steady in the sand as they are on the surface of a boat (or, for that matter, in the halls of a palace). Her hand, pressed to the small of Vivi’s back, is warm in the chill of the night, just like the rest of her (hot-blooded, in every sense of the word). 

The moon will only be fully drenched in red for a short time, and Vivi does look at it. But it’s hard to not look at Nami looking at it. It reflects steady in her eyes; she’s doubtless made a point of looking at many eclipses before, but this one now still captures her, like a tide dragged in place. Perhaps, Vivi thinks, she’d rather watch this from the decks of a boat, but once the shadow begins to retreat, Nami looks back at her, and Vivi can’t misinterpret that.

At the time, she would have loved to stay. She would love to have had more time, back then, if she could have afforded it. But she couldn’t then; they can’t go back, and even if they were to dredge up the wood that made the  _ Merry _ ’s deck from the bottom of the sea, buried in softer sand than they stand on here, it wouldn’t be the same. 

The moon rises higher and smaller. Once again, it is pale and bright, familiar, commonplace in the sky. The wind snaps at Vivi’s pants, sending sand skidding into both of their feet. They remain, without specific reason. They won’t sink into the dunes, at least not before the moon is behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> HBD Vivi <3
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
